Dan Hodges

Daniel Pearce Jackson Hodges (born 7 March 1969) is a British journalist, blogger and columnist. He regularly writes a column for The Daily Telegraph[1] and is said to be David Cameron's favourite columnist.[2]

Biography

Hodges is the son of the Labour MP (and former actress) Glenda Jackson and her then husband Roy Hodges.[3] In the last twenty years, Hodges has worked as a parliamentary researcher, a Labour Party official, GMB official, and as director of communications for Transport for London under Ken Livingstone. He has been a journalist and a blogger writing for The Guardian, the New Statesman, The Daily Telegraph, The Times and Labour Uncut. He supported Jon Cruddas in the 2007 deputy leadership election as a member of Compass, but has since been critical of the organisation.[4] He supported David Miliband in the 2010 Labour leadership contest and has since been very critical of Ed Miliband. He also worked for the successful No to AV campaign in 2011.

Views

Hodges describes himself as a 'tribal neo-Blairite' and is very well known for being a staunch critic of Ed Miliband and the current Labour Party of which he was a member for 27 years. In May 2012, although he was then a long-standing member of the Labour Party, Hodges voted for the Conservative Boris Johnson in the London Mayoral elections, lauding him as a "unifying figure" over Ken Livingstone whom he saw as "divisive" and "a disgrace", adding that "London needs someone who can speak for all of London, not just the balkanized segments whose votes he craves". However, he still voted for Labour London Assembly candidates.[5]

In August 2013, Hodges expressed strong approval for David Cameron's administration ordering the border detention of David Miranda, the spouse of journalist Glenn Greenwald, under the Terrorism Act, who despite not being under suspicion of planning terroristic acts, was found to be carrying an external hard drive containing 58,000 highly classified UK intelligence documents, and whose detention was subsequently ruled lawful by the UK High Court, which accepted that Miranda's detention and the seizure of computer material was "an indirect interference with press freedom" but said this was justified by legitimate and "very pressing" interests of national security.[6] Members of the Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR) in Parliament said that allowing police to stop and search suspects at airports without suspicion was "not inherently incompatible" with human rights. MPs and peers said they agreed anti-terror officers should be able to "stop, question, request documentation and physically search persons and property" even when they did not have reasonable suspicion that an offence had been committed. But they urged the Government to introduce new restrictions on powers such as strip-searches, detentions and searches of the contents of electronic devices such as laptops and smartphones, and said that these "more intrusive" measures should only take place when officers had reasonable suspicion that someone was involved in terrorism.[7]

Hodges expressed support for the government suppressing whistleblowers spreading "information highly detrimental to the UK national interest".[8] Following the House of Commons vote on 29 August 2013 against possible military involvement in the Syrian civil war, and objecting to Ed Miliband's conduct, Hodges left the Labour Party.[9] In 2014, Hodges declared his support for the Liberal Democrats in the European elections because of Nick Clegg's stand against UKIP but supported Labour for the local elections.

In 2014, Hodges co-founded the Migration Matters Trust, a pro-immigration pressure group chaired by Barbara Roche, Lord Dhokalia and Nadhim Zahawi and run by Atul Hatwal. Hodges is also a wargame designer. His first game design was Where There Is Discord: War in the South Atlantic which is about the Falklands War.[10]

Personal life

Hodges married lobbyist Michelle di Leo in 2003, after meeting her at Labour Party Conference in 1999.[11] In February 1992 he lost his left eye.[12] He was a member of the Labour Party for 27 years.[13] He lives in Blackheath with his wife, children and mother.[14]

References

  1. ↑ http://www.omnilexica.com/?q=daniel+pearce+jackson+hodges
  2. ↑ http://www.spectator.co.uk/features/8910471/camerons-bluff/
  3. ↑ Ian Hall (28 February 2003). "Profile: Dan Hodges, Freedom To Fly". PR Week (prweek.com). Retrieved 4 November 2011.
  4. ↑ http://labour-uncut.co.uk/2010/07/01/dan-hodges-warns-labour-against-the-new-pluralism/
  5. ↑ Dan Hodges (30 April 2012). "Ken Livingstone is right: it's him or Boris Johnson. That's why I'm voting Boris". Daily Telegraph Blogs (The Telegraph). Retrieved 20 August 2013.
  6. ↑ Travis,Alan; Taylor,Matthew; Wintour,Patrick (19 February 2014). "David Miranda detention at Heathrow airport was lawful, high court rules". The Guardian (London). Retrieved 31 July 2014.
  7. ↑ Barrett, David (11 October 2013). "'Clear' case for anti-terrorist powers used to detain David Miranda, says human rights committee". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 3 August 2014.
  8. ↑ Dan Hodges (20 August 2013). "Why does being a relative of Glenn Greenwald place you above the law". Daily Telegraph Blogs (The Telegraph). Retrieved 20 August 2013.
  9. ↑ Dan Hodges "Miliband was governed by narrow political interests – not those of Syrian children. I have left the Labour Party", telegraph.co.uk, 30 August 2013
  10. ↑ "Confessions of a 'Grognard': why I am an unashamed board game geek". Retrieved 10 January 2014.
  11. ↑ http://www.planestupid.com/category/blog-tags/flying-matters
  12. ↑ http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/person/93138%7C62292/Glenda-Jackson/
  13. ↑ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/labour/10277706/Syria-was-the-last-straw-Ive-now-quit-the-Labour-Party.html
  14. ↑ Hodges, Dan (21 October 2014). "Ed Balls has just turned my house into a mansion. I'm not as happy about it as you might think". Archived from the original on 22 October 2014. Retrieved 12 December 2014.

External links